tempus fugit

White Man Shoots and Wounds Black Police Chief, Is Released Same Day– Oklahoma

2015-05-24

This happened in a tiny town in Oklahoma back in January, but it didn’t get into the national news. I don’t know why not.

As reported in the Atlanta Black Star January 18, 2015: “on Thursday” (January 15?) a man called 911 twice and claimed that there was a bomb in the local school house, the Sentinel Head Start school. He identified himself as Dallas Horton. Local police and sheriffs (a total of five officers) conducted a raid on Horton’s home, with the black police chief leading. The chief said that he and the other officers were shouting “police” and so on, but Mr. Horton claimed he didn’t know they were police. When the police chief entered the room where Mr. Horton was standing, Horton, fired four shots at him; three struck him in the chest, striking his bullet resistant vest, and one struck him in the arm. He was treated at the hospital and released.

However, none of the other officers returned fire. After a brief investigation, Horton was released. The logic behind the release supposedly was that the calls to 911 did not come from Horton’s home, so he could not have made the threats. In addition, the investigators apparently believed Horton’s claim that he did not know that the officers were police rather than random armed intruders. The investigation was conducted by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, who searched Horton’s home; in addition to several legal firearms, they were said to have found a “possible” explosive device. There was no explanation as to why the “possible” explosive device did not justify arresting Mr. Horton for investigation of “possession of an explosive device”, which is a crime.

Mr. Horton was apparently well known to the local police, and his Facebook page has a number of violent, racist images and statements. He is said to be a “survivalist type.” The mayor of Sentinel (population 904) said that he has known Horton his entire life.

I don’t know what to make of this story, but it doesn’t sound to me as if Dallas Horton was adequately investigated or appropriately charged. Perhaps this is because this was a small town and he was well known to the police and local politicians; it seems that a white racist, survivalist type fits right in to this community.